The Saudi Arabian Grand Prix was announced to be on the 2021 Formula One World Championship calendar in November 2020.

[3] The race was originally to take place on 28 November, but it was rescheduled due to the postponement of the Australian Grand Prix owing to the COVID-19 pandemic.

[5] Teams sported tributes on their cars,[6] and a minute's silence took place approximately one hour before the start of the race.

Carlos Sainz Jr. struggled with his Ferrari after spinning at turn 10 and brushing the wall with his rear wing, causing minor damage.

On his final run in Q2, he had another loss of control, declaring the car was "undrivable"[17] and being forced to back out of the attempt.

Coming into the final corner, he locked his front left tyre and after going wide and applying the throttle he lost control of the rear and hit the wall causing his suspension to break.

After the first standing restart, Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton were involved in an incident where Verstappen overtook Hamilton off the race track, shortly before a crash involving Sergio Pérez, Charles Leclerc, Nikita Mazepin, and George Russell resulted in a second red flag period.

As of the 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Bottas' podium remains the most recent achieved by a Finnish driver in Formula One.

[28] Masi commented: "I wouldn't call it a deal, as from a race director's perspective I have no authority to instruct the teams to do anything in that situation.

"[29] Russell, who retired as a result of the accident at the first restart and is also the director of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association, called for changes to be made to the track for safety.

[30] Norris, who was initially running in the points but dropped out during the red flag periods before recovering to 10th, meanwhile slammed the red flag tyre change rules, calling for the "unfair" rule to be changed and cited previous races where he ended up in similar situations.